Solar Eclipse
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day sixty-six: Sunshine Girls #4 Quinn tries to keep from having Rachel question her about the picture she found.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle, and then a third cycle Now here comes cycle 4! :D_

* * *

**"Solar Eclipse"  
Sequel to Divergence, Sunshine, and Beams & Rays  
Quinn & Rachel**

Neither of them paid a bit of attention through class. Rachel would keep looking back over her shoulder to Quinn, who would just avert her eyes, staring down at her textbook. It had gotten to the point that their teacher had called Rachel on it. She'd stopped looking, which had allowed for Quinn to relax.

She was… well, screwed, basically. Now Rachel knew that she'd seen the picture, and of course she wouldn't be able to leave it alone. She'd want Quinn to talk to her about it… She would rather skip it, and that was putting it mildly. She knew she couldn't escape it… short of leaving the state, there was no way out of it. The best she could do was put it off.

As the period was drawing to an end, Quinn could see Rachel was bracing to accost her on the way out of class. Quinn was doing the same, hoping to bypass her.

The moment class was dismissed, both girls had jumped to their feet, soon followed by the rest of the students. Before either could make another move…

"Miss Berry?" Both stopped, both looked at the teacher. "A moment, please?" Rachel bowed her head, looking back. Quinn was moving toward the exit, victorious and free.

Once in the hall, she thought about the rest of the day. There were still a few classes to go. Rachel was in none of them, so she was at least in the clear until the next day… that was good…

"Quinn, wait!" she heard from behind her… She groaned, seeing how little time she'd been kept back. She sped up, holding her books up close. "Wait, please," Rachel tried again.

"I don't want to talk, alright?" Quinn insisted. "I don't see why we should anyway," she did her very best to push her off, but there was no getting through to her apparently.

"Aren't you even a little curious?" she kept on trying to keep up.

"No, not even a little," she lied," she lied. She didn't fool Rachel.

"Do you remember?" Quinn finally stopped and spun around to face Rachel, who had to react quick so not to bump into Quinn.

"Can't you just let it go already? It's just a picture, it doesn't mean anything." She chuckled. "Did you think that we'd suddenly become… what, friends again?" She turned and walked away, not seeing how she'd given her arsenal to keep pushing.

"So you do remember," she declared. Quinn didn't reply, just kept walking, hoping to shake off Rachel, but she just stuck to her heels like a shadow.

"Why can't you just leave it alone?" she breathed out, exasperated.

"Why won't you just tell me?"

"What do you think is going to happen if I do that?" she turned to Rachel once again. "It's not going to change anything," she continued.

"Well, if that's the case, what's the harm?" Rachel dealt a damaging blow to Quinn's defence.

"Because I know, you won't leave it alone. You say you will, but you won't, you never do."

Rachel paused at the statement, thrown by it. Staring back into Quinn's eyes she saw something new. She saw it, and Quinn realized it at the same time. She turned and sped along. Rachel resumed tailing her.

"You know what happened, don't you," she declared. "You remember what it was that made us stop being fr…"

"I've got nothing to say," Quinn insisted.

She was shaken though, and she needed a beat to regain control. The memory had rebuilt itself bit by bit in her mind and now she knew… she did remember what had hacked a rift between the All-Mighty Sunshine Girls.

It was as though having the memory came hand in hand with feeling the emotions caused by it. It wasn't Rachel who'd broken the dam and let the memories out… She'd done it all on her own, and it was a lot to take, so many implications.

But now she knew for certain… Yes, it was true, they had been friends… very close, almost sisters, inseparable… but separated… It was as though they'd been traveling one road together, but then they'd hit a wall, and in getting back on their path, it had split in two their twin roads had always run parallel, just close enough for them to see one another…

Glee Club had tugged their roads together again, but not merged… Just because they remembered there had once been just one road, it didn't mean they couldn't still see the split in between then and now.

"Quinn, please," Rachel still tried. "Whatever happened, I just…"

"I tried to put that picture back without you seeing, just take the hint…"

"I don't remember any of it," Rachel finally admitted. Quinn's steps slowed just a bit. "I just want to know what this all was. You may not want to remember, but at least you do, you have the memories, and you have the option to ignore them, push them away. I can't even do that." She paused. "You saw the picture like I did; you saw how happy we were… I just want to get the chance to know what it was that made it so."

Quinn stopped again, sighing. She didn't want to do it, but… somewhere in her, she was still… Rays… It was as thought that part wanted Quinn to throw Rachel a bone… something she could grab on to… maybe she'd leave her be then…

She turned to face her again. She wasn't so sure about this, but she wasn't in the mood for big talks – and she had to get to class – so it was the only thing she had that she could offer in hopes to get Rachel off her for a while. Her face said two things back to back – 'does this ring a bell?' and 'I can't believe I'm doing this.'

She lifted Rachel's hand, turning it in position, tapping her palm to get her to spread her fingers out. Her eyes flickered up for a moment, briefly seeing a confused Rachel, before she put her hand to hers, the palms reversed to create the 'sunshine hands.' She held the gesture just long enough for Rachel to grasp the memory. After that, she'd let go and gone off to class.

After a moment standing there with her palm still out, Rachel had gone to class. The gesture hadn't been the magical key to unlock all the memories, but… It was doing… something.

She was curious now, she wanted to remember more. She pulled her notebook toward herself, leafing through to find the picture Quinn had tossed inside.

She went through all of it, and her heart sank… the picture was gone.

THE END


End file.
